Employment history and your response to the EEOC complaint

Employment history and the non-discriminatory reasons for the adverse employment action are key when responding to the EEOC complaint.

In your response to the EEOC complaint, explain the facts in chronological order so that it’s easy to follow. You are telling the story. So you want to talk about when was this person hired, for what position, have there been subsequent changes in position, if the responsibilities of these positions are relevant, you should include some information about that. If you’ve got job description and that’s applicable, you should attach copies of those job descriptions.

Include facts relating to hiring which are relevant to the defense in your EEOC complaint response. For example, if this person is complaining about age discrimination and was over 40 at the time hired, it’s worth noting that this person was over 40 at the time they were hired.

Your reply to the EEOC complaint needs to explain the facts and circumstances that form the basis for your non-discriminatory employment action. Answer these questions: What led the company to take the action, who made the decision, why did they make the decision?

Think about it. Turn the tables and think about it the other way. If you were reading this, you knew nothing about the situation, at the end of the day is the position statement you’re writing gives the reader everything he or she needs to know to come to the conclusion that what the company did was right.

Include affirmative evidence of non-discrimination in your EEOC complaint response. It’s important to focus not only on responding to the complainant’s specific allegation, but also providing the agency with any other affirmative evidence of non-discrimination.

For example, in an age case, what are the demographics of your work force? Do you have a number of older employees in the department that this employee was in, in the division that this employee was in? If so, that may be information you want to share.

If it’s a pregnancy discrimination case, have there been other female employees who have taken maternity leave, delivered their baby and then successfully returned to work? If so, that’s the kind of thing you might want to reference.

Always show a defense to the EEOC complaint of “We treat similarly situated people similarly.” Anything you can do help that defense is good in the position statement.

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